


Those Stars Are Fake, But You Aren't

by InstructionsNotFound



Series: Bread Crumbs [10]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-02-23 07:23:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23807935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InstructionsNotFound/pseuds/InstructionsNotFound
Summary: Shuichi spends the night in Kokichi's apartment when he can't handle being around his parents any longer.
Relationships: Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Series: Bread Crumbs [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1054658
Comments: 21
Kudos: 258





	1. How Do You Name A Star?

**Author's Note:**

> had to get some word vomit out, and so this self-indulgent mess came about. 
> 
> figured I'd post it, even though it's pretty OOC. it wasnt really meant to be that in character I guess.

"Do you know what constellation that is?" Kokichi points up towards an arrangement of glow-in-the-dark stars attached to his ceiling.

Shuichi squinted his eyes to focus on it. It reminded him of stargazing with Kaito in his backyard. 

Perhaps Shuichi should've gone to the luminary's house instead. 

But when he rushed out of his house in a blind fit of emotion, the only place he could think to go was Kokichi's apartment. 

"No, I don't think I do." 

"Good! Cause it wasn't one until this very second," Kokichi hummed his response. "I think I'm gonna name it 'That One Bitch' since it's ugly like Miu." 

Shuichi rolled his eyes, turning to Kokichi. 

"Thank you for letting me stay here tonight." 

"Geez, haven't you already said that?" Kokichi groans. "Like I said before, it's no biggie. I'll sneak $100 out of your wallet when you're asleep and we'll call it even!" 

Shuichi didn't say anything for a while. Just went back to staring up at the ceiling. 

He was beginning to realize how much he had to think about. 

"Hey, Kokichi?" He was the only person Shuichi felt comfortable talking to about what was going on in his head. 

Sure, he had Kaito and Kaede, but…

Kokichi offered a different perspective. He didn't hold back, and he surely didn't shy away from tough conversations. 

"Mhm?" 

"Can we… talk?" Shuichi shifted in the mess of comforters they'd piled onto the floor to face Kokichi once again. 

"I was wondering when you'd ask," Kokichi looked towards Shuichi. He always saw it coming. 

But what neither of them could see is each other's faces, at least not very well, with the glow of the stars being the only light the room had to offer. 

"My parents are in town." Shuichi didn't pretend like that was a good thing. 

"Is that why you're here?" Kokichi reasons. 

"Yeah." Shuichi sighed. "They've got a new fad. Insisting they're gonna be the next big movie directors. Like John Hughes, or something." 

"Let me guess: they just need a loan of a couple thousand dollars from your uncle and they'll be famous." Kokichi had been around Shuichi long enough to learn their pattern. 

"I tried. For years. But I can't stand to be around them when they're like this anymore. It's always the same." He felt like he was holding his breath when they popped back into his life. 

It was never a good experience. 

"As long as you're fine with sleeping on the floor, I  _ suppose _ you'll always be welcome here when they get to be too much. Until your back gives out, of course." Kokichi teased.

They both knew Kokichi would sleep on the floor if he was asked to. 

"I think I found a new name for that constellation!" Kokichi proudly announces. "'Shuichi's Shitty Parents.' Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?" 

Shuichi smiled. He knew Ouma was just saying that to cheer him up. 

He always was doing things like that. 

"If I'm being honest, I still don't understand you." Shuichi mumbled into the void. 

"I think I'm easier to understand than most people." Kokichi shook his head. 

"That might be true." Shuichi couldn't find a way to argue. 

Kokichi said whatever he was thinking. Did whatever he wanted. 

Shuichi figured he could learn a thing or two from him. 

"Can I say something out of line?" Shuichi wasn't quite sure he'd said it out loud, or merely thought it so hard it became reality. 

"That's always more fun, isn't it?" Kokichi reasoned. He held no expectations. 

"I think I like you." Shuichi tried to make out Kokichi's reaction in the darkness. 

"Oh yeah?" Kokichi smirked, staring up at the faux galaxy. "Or are you just getting used to me being around?" 

"I don't know." Shuichi admits. 

Kokichi rolled closer to Shuichi, and their hands intertwined. "Yeah, me neither." 

Kokichi's hand was warm. 

"Then what are we supposed to do about that?" Shuichi mumbles, leaning his head against Kokichi's shoulder. 

"Your guess is as good as mine." 

Neither knew what to say after that. So they didn't speak at all. 

They just laid there, until morning came and the stars lost their glow. 

Sometimes that's all it takes. 


	2. What's Hotter Than Chocolate?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi and Shuichi wake up and have a cup of hot chocolate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a second chapter was a surprise to me, too. 
> 
> take a drink of water. take care of yourself, lovely. this story will always be here when you get back.

It took Shuichi three seconds to remember where he was when he woke up the next morning. 

One to notice the outlines of the star stickers on the ceiling against the blinding light of the sun shining through the window. 

The second to realize he was on the floor, which meant he was undoubtedly not at his own house. 

And the third, most simple of all, was the fact that he was still curled up next to Ouma. 

He sat up, greatly underestimating how tired his body still was. With a groan, he rubbed his eyes, and readjusted to the room. 

He'd be lying if he said he didn't miss the feeling of invincibility the glow of the stars had given him the night prior. 

But now, they were just stickers. On a ceiling that wasn't his. 

And all he was doing was hiding from his parents, and their shitty actions. 

He should go home and deal with them. He couldn't ignore them forever. 

"Mmm… you're awake…" Kokichi stifles a yawn, sitting up next to Shuichi.

… but letting himself have this morning wouldn't hurt anyone, would it? 

"I'm gonna make some hot chocolate, okay?" Shuichi turns towards Kokichi with a faint smile. 

"Wait…" Kokichi mumbles back, stopping Shuichi from leaving the room. 

"Yeah?" Shuichi tilts his head, his eyes meeting Kokichi's. 

Kokichi just stared up at him, hesitancy on his face. 

"Hnn… nevermind," Kokichi gives up, laying back down on the mess of comforters the two had fallen asleep on. 

Shuichi knew there was something on Ouma's mind. But standing around in his doorway wouldn't help much, so Shuichi continued his journey to the kitchen. 

Despite the fact that Kokichi hated the taste of coffee, he was the proud owner of a whole collection of mugs. 

Kokichi loved them all equally, or so he claimed, so Shuichi grabbed the first one he could get his hands on, which so happened to have princess peach's silhouette on it. 

Shuichi, however, only used a specific one, which was kept in a separate cabinet from Kokichi's other coffee mugs. 

_ "Did you start keeping it there so I had an easier time finding it?" Shuichi had asked him once.  _

_ "Nuh-uh!" Kokichi swiftly shook his head and crossed his arms. "It's just soo ugly, I didn't want it to rub off on the others..."  _

_ "Thank you." Shuichi rolled his eyes at Kokichi's coverup.  _

In short, that was a yes. 

Truth be told, there wasn't anything special about it. It was just a plain white mug with deep blue lettering of a short phrase on it. 

There was just something about the vague simplicity of it that drew Shuichi in. 

Setting the two mugs on the counter, Shuichi grabbed the milk from Kokichi's fridge, and the hot chocolate mix that filled his cookie jar to the brim. 

Kokichi sauntered in around the time Shuichi popped the mugs into the microwave. 

They didn't speak until the microwave went off, and Shuichi sat across from Kokichi at the table, mugs in hand. 

"Gimme, gimme!" Kokichi reached for the hot chocolate, grabbing his from Shuichi. 

"Careful," Shuichi warns before Kokichi has the chance to drink it. "Don't burn your tongue."

"I won't." Kokichi huffs, but recoils after taking a drink, signaling that he most certainly did just that. 

Shuichi sighed, before blowing on his steaming drink. 

And there, he saw the infamous words inscribed on his mug:

**_look around you_ **

And so, with a deep breath, he took in his surroundings. 

First, the little things. 

The calendar behind Ouma, which was two months behind, and had senseless doodles up and down the sides of it. 

The stack of clutter off to the side of the table, with crumpled up paper and a salt shaker sticking out of it. 

The reddish orange sauce stain that refused to come off of the table. 

And then…

_ Well _ , and then Kokichi. 

He had chipped, dark purple nail polish on his nails. But that never lasted long, with how insistent Kokichi was at picking away at it. 

His shirt was baggy. Though, most clothes were on him. It had a checkered pocket on it that reminded Shuichi of his favorite scarf. 

Then there was his hair, which in it's unbrushed, bed-headed state was…

Shuichi blushed. Maybe he had looked around him long enough. 

"Hmph." Kokichi crinkles his nose with the most dramatic of sighs. "You know, you're really throwing me for a loop here, Shu! And you said  _ I _ was confusing, sheesh." 

"Huh?" Shuichi asks, snapping back into reality. "What do you mean?" 

"Oh, _you_ _know_ ," Kokichi groaned, rubbing his head, which evidently made his hair an even bigger mess. "I'm supposed to be the liar here, not you! And now you've got me doing all of this detective work…" 

"It's like, what am I supposed to think? When you're sitting there staring at me with that look in your eyes?" He pauses, mumbling to himself. 

"I-" Shuichi attempts, just for Kokichi to cut him off. 

"Begone witch! I won't fall for your dirty nasty meanie tricks anymore," Kokichi points at Shuichi, pretending to cast a spell, because he was a whole loaf of an idiot. 

"It's almost as if you  _ want _ me to think you actually meant it was you said you liked me last night, and weren't just spouting bullshit because you were emotionally distressed." Ouma finishes his speech, clinging his mug against the tabletop with another grandiose sigh. 

"I don't know what you want me to say." Shuichi responds. And that was the truth. 

"Aw, come on. Boo! I can and  _ will _ ban you from my christian minecraft server for this." Kokichi says decisively. "You can't toy with a guy's emotions, Shuichi! Now my head's getting all cloudy. Did you poison my hot chocolate?" 

_ Easy to understand… yeah right. _

"Kokichi." Shuichi spoke calmly. He didn't want to weasel his way out of this one. That would be disingenuous. So he stuck to what he knew best: the truth. "I was just saying what was on my mind. I said I think I like you, because I do. I don't know if it started because you were always around when I needed to talk to someone, like you asked me last night. But i do know it hasn't gone away." 

Kokichi narrowed his eyes at Shuichi. "Pinky promise there's no gotcha prank show cameras?" 

Shuichi nodded. 

"No! You've gotta  _ actually _ pinky promise or it doesn't count!" Kokichi holds up one of his pinkies in the air, offering it to Shuichi. 

"Okay." Shuichi complies, locking pinkies with Kokichi.

Except instead of letting go after they shook on it, neither of them let go. 

It wasn't really hand holding. 

But in the moment, locking pinkies like a bunch of five year olds seemed just as intimate. 

And Kokichi's hand was still warm. 

"Well, if you  _ must _ know…" Kokichi smirks proudly smirks. "...then I like you too, Shuichi."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who knows who will see this. 
> 
> but to anyone that does, thank you
> 
> as always, feedback is encouraged!


	3. What Makes The Stars Fake?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi's parents were gone by the time he returned from Kokichi's apartment. 
> 
> But really, what did he expect?
> 
> So he calls Kokichi to comfort him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no we are not acknowledging that this oneshot now has 3 chapters, next question

Shuichi's parents weren't there when he returned home from Kokichi's apartment. 

They left the second their wallets were full. 

Appearing and vanishing within the night.

He wasn't shocked. 

Or angry. 

He wasn't even disappointed. Not really. 

Just tired of it. 

He really shouldn't have expected anything different. 

At least they hadn't tried to pretend like they came back for him this time. That was always the worst of all. 

He just wished they learned how to use Venmo or something, so they didn't have to barge back into his life every time they needed a quick cash grab. 

So he locked himself in his room and dialled the number of the one person that could take his mind off of it. 

Which happened to be the very person he had seen just a mere hour before. 

"Kokichi…?" Shuichi mumbles when he picks up, because just the act of saying his name was enough to keep the air in Shuichi's lungs for the time being. 

"I'm on my way," Kokichi says, because even without Shuichi asking him, he knew he was needed. 

"What made you put those stars on your ceiling?" Shuichi stared up at his own empty ceiling, as the most detrimental, pointless question plagued him. 

Kokichi had his glow-in-the-dark star stickers, stuck to his ceiling. 

Kaede had her fairy lights, strung along her wall. 

Kaito had the whole galaxy, just outside his bedroom window. 

But Shuichi was beginning to feel like he had nothing at all. 

"Do you want the dumb answer or the even dumber answer?" 

"Both," Shuichi replies, because the mixture of serious and over dramatic nonsense  _ was _ Kokichi. 

"I promised Kaito I'd steal the stars from him," Kokichi announced. "So in one fell swoop, I snatched them all and became the Supreme Leader of the galaxy! And now he has to bow to me, like, at  _ least _ three times a day." 

"And the less dumb answer?" A small smile formed on Shuichi's face as he listened to Kokichi speak. 

His mind truly was something else, to contrive a million tales in the blink of an eye. 

"Oh, Saihara-chan! How you  _ wound _ me. That  _ was _ the less dumb answer." Kokichi huffs, pouting over the phone. "Now I can never ever  _ ever _ tell you the truth!" 

Which, as always, was a complete lie, because as soon as Kokichi found himself at Shuichi's house, and laid down next to Shuichi in his bed, he revealed exactly what he said he  _ wouldn't _ talk about. 

"When you look at real stars at night, they don't care about you. They're there for everyone in the whole wide world to see." Kokichi mumbles, staring up at Shuichi's empty ceiling. 

"But if you put some on your ceiling, they're there for you and you alone. And they can appear or disappear as you please, no matter what time it is…" his words trailed off, as if he was lost in thought. 

"What's that saying again? How the stars will remember you? For the most part, I think that's a bunch of stinky bologna, but I know some that will." Kokichi crinkled up his nose at the mention of rotten meat. 

"Besides, have you seen the way those stars look, when you're alone in a pitch black room? They don't look like phony stickers then. There's something special there, y'know? I bet Himiko would be jealous, 'cause it definitely holds the secret behind magic!" Kokichi bit his lip, turning to Shuichi. "Or maybe that all was just a lie." 

Shuichi would be incorrect if he said Kokichi's enamored description of the star stickers didn't entrance him. 

So, instead of feeding into a fibbers web, he turned to Kokichi, and just like that, they were looking directly at one another, nearly touching foreheads. 

"You're not that good of a liar." Shuichi concludes. 

Kokichi narrowed his eyes to that. "You dare underestimate the galaxy's beloved Supreme Leader?" 

He was close enough to kiss. 

"Of course not." Shuichi answered, his head most helplessly in the clouds.

It was around then that Shuichi thought to lean in close to Kokichi, and leave the most delicate of kisses on his cheek. 

So he did. Without hesitation. 

In turn, Kokichi stared into Shuichi's eyes with wonder as he processed the situation, before grinning with the utmost confident declaration known to man, "You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want my forgiveness." 

And so, they both leaned forward this time as their lips connected into a proper kiss for the first time. 

When they pulled apart, with peaceful expressions, Shuichi got to thinking. 

Kokichi had his stars. Kaede had her lights. Kaito had his galaxy. 

And maybe, just maybe, Shuichi had Kokichi. 

And he was very much so happy with that conclusion. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alternatively titled "the author has too much emotional investment in glow-in-the-dark stars"
> 
> but as always, thank you to anyone reading this. 
> 
> please feel free to tell me what you thought 
> 
> and take care of yourself, cause you're worth it

**Author's Note:**

> hope this did something positive for the world


End file.
